Coming Home
by SephrinaRose
Summary: What if things had gone differently in the Forest? What if Eren didn't have time to transform? Levi looses one more solider on that fateful day. Major Character Death. OOC in Levi. One-Shot.


Hey Guys, this my first Snk fic.

If you haven't guessed already Eren dies brutally, so be prepared.

Warning: Gore, Blood, Death and OOC

Discliamer: I really don't own these beautiful complex characters, Coming Home by Dirty Monkey and Skylar Gray or Snk.

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><p><em>I'm coming home<em>

Eren looked down with shaded eyes at what he had become. At the place where his right leg should of been. Now there was only a puddle of blood which continued to fill, having already soaked the grass beneath him to its full absorbing capacity.

His blood.

He had cut his femoral artery. Well, _he_ didn't. The female titan did.

She came on too fast, too strong. He had no time to even think about transforming.

Captain Levi wasn't there. He wasn't there to help them. To save them.

But, Squad Levi was amazing. They fought so beautifully, so in sync. They were perfect.

And now they were all dead.

He couldn't get the image of Petra out of his head. Her broken and bloody body smashed up against that tree. The crimson blood running from her nose and those horrifyingly beautiful sightless eyes, the colour harshly contrasting against her creamy skin. Her beautiful hazel hair flowing freely in the wind as it swirled passed her.

It wasn't fair.

They hadn't deserved to die.

They were such strong young people. So full of life and hope.

But now they would be forgotten, But another handful of tallies to add to the rapidly rising human death toll.

And soon, he was going to be the same.

He was going to die here, propped up against this blood stained tree as he bled to death. Only the dead bodies of his comrades to keep him company during his final moments on earth.

There was a spark somewhere deep in his mind that Captain Levi would come for him. To come save him.

He extinguished it immediately.

No medicine or first aid in this forsaken world could save him now. He was too far gone.

Besides, why was he so special? Petra, Gunther, Eld, and Auruo all died without anyone by their side, so why should he?

He didn't deserve Captain Levi's solace, when those who had known and cared for him for so much longer didn't.

He had never asked to be humanities hope.

They didn't need him, it not like he could do anything. He couldn't even transform before the female titan bit off his leg.

He wasn't healing either. His leg was still pouring blood. He had given up staunching it long ago. Now he just laid back against the stained tree trunk, and waited for death.

At least he couldn't feel pain anymore. His body had already deteriorated far enough to shut his nervous system down.

You would think doing it once was enough, but Eren had lost his limbs twice.

He knew he wouldn't be so lucky this time around.

At least soon he would see his mother, and all of his other comrades that had died. Even Petra, Gunther, Eld and Auruo. Maybe... even Marco too.

He smiled lightly as he closed his eyes, relaxing into his blank mind.

Soon, he would see them. He would be coming home.

All he had to do was wait.

_I'm coming home_

Levi's eyes were downcast as he flew though the air, seeing the dead bodies of the people that trusted him. Trusted his judgment.

And now they were dead.

Petra, Gunther, Eld and Auruo. His four best, all broken and bloody. All dead.

They were all dead.

But... Where was Eren?

He hadn't seen the distinctive flash in the sky, signalling a titan transformation. But maybe he didn't see because of the trees?

He didn't want to think about it...

But... If the boy didn't transform...

It was most likely that he was dead too.

Laying dead somewhere dead on the forrest floor, blood surrounding his young corpse.

He didn't want to look for him. He had seen enough. But he _owed_ it to Eren, just like the rest of his comrades.

He owed to them, to bring their corpses home.

.

That was when he saw him.

First he saw the blood, the harsh crimson a shocking contrast to the greenery around them. Then he saw the boy... Or what was left of him.

Levi deactivated his wires as he landed, with much less grace than he was known for; by the boys side. He forced himself to look up from the ground and slowly travel up the small body. He forced himself to look at what his actions had done. Just like his other members. He forced himself to document, to observe what he had done to them. No matter how much he didn't want to. He had to. They deserved that much.

Eren looked like hell.

He was leaning against the tree behind him, head bowed and eyes shadowed by his blood flecked hair. His hands laid on the ground by his sides, palms up and fingers curling up in the air; but they where completely stained with his own blood, caked crimson to the wrists. He had obviously tried to staunch to bleeding coming from his leg.

The boy had cut the femoral artery. Blood was still pumping out of his severed leg, the muscle mass still twitching against the prominent white bone protruding for where his leg disappeared.

Eren must of moved after it happened, accidentally shifting his hips and forcing more of his femur bone out from his body. The movement probably broke more blood vessels in his leg, further staining the once green grass.

It must of been a excruciating way to die.

_"H-H-ei-ch-ch..o..u?"_

_Tell the world I'm coming home_

Oh god, he was still alive.

"Eren! Oh my God Eren! You need to stay awake, okay?"

The poor boy's eyes where roaming in their sockets, as if they where trying to find him without moving his heavy head. His hand twitched, as though he was trying to lift it to his. His body wasn't working anymore.

Nothing was working anymore.

Levi didn't know why. Suddenly he was frantic. After realising that Eren was alive, he wanted nothing more than to save him.

It was obvious the boy wasn't going to stay awake, he was too far gone. But he couldn't help it. One of the people in his Squad was alive, and he wanted to save them. To fix this mess.

But, everyone else was already dead. And, soon, Eren would be too.

He couldn't save him now, he was too late.

Again.

He was far too late for his Squad, and now he was too late for Eren.

Some Captain he was.

Levi gingerly moved Eren's head, so he could look at him. He didn't mind the blood that coated his hands. He could feel the disgust inside him rising, but it was pushed down.

Nothing was as important as Eren right now.

"I-t-'ss _s-so_ cold, Hei-ch-ch-ou..." Was the painfully weak stutter from the once strong and powerful boy, those beautiful yet clouded green eyes finally meeting his own.

The green eyes looked at him as though they where trying to look though milk. They where so unfocused and un-responding, he could tell that Eren as trying so hard to look past it, too look at the last face he would ever see; but he couldn't. Levi felt his heart twinge painfully at the sight.

The boys eyes had always been so expressive. The shocking emerald green so emotive and bright. Now, they where so milky and pain consumed.

But, at least, Eren was beyond pain now.

He was only just here, the rest of him had left already.

He didn't want to touch. But he had too. Eren was more important that his petty neurotic tendencies. He deserved to be held as he died so painfully

He gathered the child into his arms. Holding him across his lap as his only leg hung over the side of Levi's thigh, the other sad excuse of his right leg was spewing Eren's blood onto Levi's white uniform pants. He supported the boys head against his chest, holding him close with his arm that he wrapped around Eren's chest.

The boys opposite arm hung limp on the crimson soaked ground, his right hand laid flat on the floor, palms facing the sky. His other bloody hand weakly clasped his coat, staining the dark green just the same as the grass around them.

"Then I'll just have to warm you up a bit" he forced the fake words from his lips. He had seen death far too many times to know that Eren, _this child_, was going to die and there was no way to help him, or comfort him. But, he still said the painfully fake words to the boy, slightly brushing the bangs away from his sweaty forehead; leaving a trail of Eren's blood with his fingertips on the sweaty skin.

Levi hoped that at least his death would be a quick one.

_Let the rain, wash away, all the pain of yesterday_

Small droplets of rain started to fall from the sky. Just little round ones, falling gently to the earth. Soon, it began to fall in a steady wave, although unusually light compared to the water's density.

Nothing could of compared to the weight on Levi's shoulders now, holding the dying Eren as he did.

The droplets of rain fell on Eren's forehead, and he barely flinched. It was saddening. His nervous system had failed already. Now, he couldn't even function enough to actually register rain falling on his face and into his open eyes.

His body was supposed to care for him. To make him react to such circumstances. To protect his beautiful green eyes from damage.

So, Levi would do it for him instead.

He brushed the rain from Eren's face, and tried desperately not to let his tears join the rain that fell: at the look that had befallen his young comrade.

It was so sad.

His youthful face was so drawn. So empty.

The boy had seen too much in his short life. This world so was warped. It allowed a child like Eren to watch as his mother was eaten, and his friends died around him. No child should have to experience that.

But, that was what the world had become. And Levi had to accept it.

_I know my kingdom awaits, and they've forgiven my mistakes_

Levi didn't believe in the afterlife. He had lost too many to believe that they where looked after by some sort of deity. (1)

But he hoped desperately that it existed for Eren. For everyone that he had lost.

He wanted a place for him to live happily, forever. He didn't believe that what he received in life was what he should of been dealt. He was 15 (2) for crying out loud.

He hoped that his comrades, his friends, were there now. Because they where all far to young to die. They should all be given a chance to live a better life, on a place that wasn't this forsaken earth.

He hoped this broken boy in his arms would see his dead family again. Levi knew that Eren's mother was eaten in front of him on That Day.

It would be nice if he could be with her again. For her to cradle him in her arms. The way it _should_ of been.

.

Eren fell unconscious. The final stage.

But his beautiful green eyes were still open, for this wasn't just any unconscious state.

He was dying.

His body didn't have enough life left within it to keep conscious. It had shut down all of this systems, including is muscular system, only leaving his respiratory and circulatory.

It was a shame, for his blood continued to pump out from his body and take his life force with it.

So, Levi just sat in the rain - and awaited the death of his comrade.

The boys head was curled against his chest, his light breathing barely grazing Levi's collarbone. He could feel the boys unsteady heartbeats. His heartbeats were faulty and irregular now that he didn't have much blood left. A sure, steady beat was few and far between. The rest where just small pattering: like a weakly flapping fish out of water.

But, for the fish, the situation was easily fixed. All it needed was a little help to be put back into the water.

Eren's situation was far more complicated. No matter how much help he received, nothing could put him back together again.

He was broken.

It was like he was a child's toy. In the beginning, he was the best thing. Everybody wanted a piece of him. But, slowly the illusion of the perfect being wore off, and they grew tried of him. They stopped caring and his novelty grew old.

He was a broken toy that nobody wanted anymore.

But, he was _so_ _damn_ beautiful.

Death should not be attractive. Eren wasn't supposed to look so beautiful in his dying moments.

His youthful skin was still so beautifully tanned, so smooth and unblemished.

He didn't have wrinkles, or sun marks. Or anything. None of the signs of age and a life well lived.

So, really it was a given that he would be beautiful in death.

He was so young. Death was made for the elderly. The ones who had lived and have aged.

Death was not seen as beautiful...because the young were not meant to die.

He looked so peaceful lying in Levi's arms, you could almost believe that he was only sleeping.

If not for the crimson blood staining everything around them, including themselves.

But, it was only too easy to pretend that the blood around them wasn't Eren's. That it wasn't his lifeblood haphazardly covering everything instead for being in his body.

Where it should be.

But, in this world...nothing was what it should be.

_I'm coming home, I'm coming home_

Eren was close.

He had only moments remaining.

Even in unconsciousness, his breathing was laboured and spluttering. His heartbeats where erratic. Like he had run a mile, but leaving a trail of his blood in his wake.

Levi idly wondered if he would bleed out first, or die from shock from loosing so much blood.

It wasn't registering in his brain that this was Eren. The idiotic and painfully determined brat. The one that Levi had grown to care for, like all his other comrades.

Because this boy was so different to the one he knew. The one he knew as Eren Jaeger.

It was so painfully obvious he was dying.

_For a boy so lively, his heart should be racing._

_For a boy so determined, he shouldn't be this quiet_

_And for a boy so young, he shouldn't be this still._

But, he could feel it in the air. Death approaching.

It was a strange sort of sensation.

He never had experienced this before. Every death he had witnessed had been so sudden, so quick. They where there one minute and gone the next.

But, Eren's death was so heart-wrenchingly slow.

It was like a chill had risen from the ground. Everything was so still. The forrest had become so quiet; there was no rustling of leaves or the chirp of a bird.

Silence.

Nature was never silent. But, it seemed, it too acknowledged death.

Eren's breathing hitched lightly, his hand subconsciously clutching Levi's coat tighter.

It was the end.

Levi squeezed his eyes tightly, closing them momentarily as he pulled the dying teen into a embrace. He clutched the boy close to his chest, hands balling up in Eren's uniform- disfiguring the Wings of Freedom insignia on his jacket.

It was ironic, for Eren had never found his freedom. Death was the only reward for his sacrifice.

He hoped that Eren would find his freedom, for he had not found it on this earth.

Eren deserved that in the least.

He whispered his last words to 15 year old Eren Jaeger, holding him close and whispering them into the child's bloody ear.

"Thank you for your Sacrifice, Eren Jaeger. You will _not_ be forgotten."

_Tell the world that I'm coming..._

White. It was all around him. It filled his vision like nothing he had ever seen before.

"_Eren!_" Was the first thing he heard, his consciousness further rising from the darkness and into the comforting and yet blinding light.

He looked around, and saw the only thing blemishing the pure white.

His mother.

He sat up, ramrod straight. He blanched at the sight of her.

Her hair, her clothes, her voice. Everything was the same as he remembered.

But her distress wasn't

"Mum?" He yelled as she crossed across the open space.

He tried to move to his feet, before remembering what had happened to him only moments ago.

He looked down, fully expecting the blood and bone that he had just seen.

There was nothing.

His leg was there. There was no blood. Only his white pants, the same squint worthy shade as the world around him.

"Eren, oh, my son!" Eren's mother cried. He rushed up to him and grabbed him in her arms, holding him to her chest.

He could almost forget everything that happened. It was all too easy to relax into her embrace: one he had missed dearly for the past 5 years.

"Oh... Baby. You shouldn't be here" his mother whispered into his ear while clutching him tighter.

Oh... That was right.

He was dead. That's why he was here. His mother was too.

It made sense.

"But, I died mum.." Eren stated.

"You where far too young my baby. Far too young. We were not supposed to meet again for a very long time"

Eren didn't know what to say. Because everything she said was true.

He was only a teen, and he wasn't supposed to die today.

"I'm sorry Mum...I'm so sorry"

She sighed sadly, bring Eren to arms distance to look at him, lightly stoking his hair comfortingly.

"It's okay darling... You fought hard... You tried your best"

Eren could faintly see every person he had lost, walking in the distance.

Petra, Eld, Aurou, Guther, Marco, Thomas... Even Armin's grandpa.

They all looked so happy. Smile adorned their faces as they conversed, Armin's grandpa joining in to a extent-even though he didn't know them in his life.

Slowly, Armin's grandpa stopped walking and turned to face them. He smile turned sad at the sight of Eren - the boy he was watched grow-in this place.

But, he raised a hand - and beaconed into the light that the others souls where walking towards.

Eren's mother nodded, before rising to her feet-bringing Eren up with her.

Eren relaxed into her hold. Taking comfort from the warmth her hand emitted.

Carla smiled at him lightly, before walking into the light with Eren's hand clasped firmly in her own.

_home_

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><p>When Captain Levi finally carried Eren out of the Forrest, the boys blood was still dripping and left a trail behind them.<p>

He quietly approached the cart: the one made specifically for the dead bodies they knew they would have to take home.

Levi knew this, he just never expected the bodies to be ones of those he cared about.

Eren's body was hanging listless in his arms, his head and 3 remaining limbs flaccid in his futile grip.

He could feel Erwin's saddened eyes following his every move.

He placed the boy inside the cart, his limp body sprawling out on the plastic body bag as he collapsed into the cart ungracefully. Levi struggled to place the boy correctly in the body bag: all the while trying to ignore those beautiful green eyes, staring blankly up at the sky.

He just stood there for a minute, looking down at the dead teen. After what felt like forever of taking in his far too young features; he gently reached out and tucked the bangs behind Eren's ears, pushing the hair out of this eyes and away from his cold clammy skin.

He paused, hand still hovering over the boys forehead:before looking across all of the bodies in the cart. Petra, Gunther, Aurou, Eld...

_This_ was what remained of his squad.

The setting sun shone in his eyes as he looked over his entire squads dead bodies. All wrapped up like presents waiting to be delivered home to their families.

Except Eren. He had no home.

He would be burned, cremated. They had no more room to bury the dead in the military plots. Too many had died for humanity. Eventually, they would all end up dead.

Even beautiful and selfless children like Eren.

He would just become one of the hundreds to be forgotten. Just to be wiped from the face of the earth, like wiping away water from a bench. One moment there, then the next- completely absorbed into the other multitudes of soldiers that had died.

But, Eren had been special. Levi had never seen so much determination. While he wasn't the strongest boy- his resolve had been so powerful it was frightening.

And... To Levi that was worth it.

All the training he put Eren though. While it was to make Eren stronger, it was also so Levi could be reminded of what they were all fighting for.

Eren had this charisma that brought to light everyone else's resolve. Even in the darkest of times, when everyone had forgotten what they were fighting for, Eren's loud resolve was what drove them. What reminded them.

Eren reminded Levi as well. Even without noticing it, the boy had reminded him: after all those years of mindless fighting, of what he dreamed for. What he wanted.

All those years he had been fighting purely for survival. So he could live day by day. But... Eren had reminded him that there was more to life than that.

He had reminded Levi how to live, just before he had died.

It was hatefully tragic.

People like Eren deserved to live. His soldiers deserved to live. All of the Recon corps deserved to to live. They were all so brave and strong... Far more than that King of theirs and his petty nobles that hid away in their safe little inner walls.

They where all so very brave, but everyday, so many of them died. They all died nameless and faceless, some where never found.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair at all.

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><p>(1) This is not in any offence to my own religion or others. I just can't imagine Levi being religious.<p>

(2) I like to think of him as that age. Plus, he had said in the anime that he wasn't able to consent to do anything which makes him underage, so he needed a guardian to do so, whom was Levi. If anyone knows his real age it would be appreciated if you could tell me.

So... I hope it was good. I would love to hear your thoughts.

God Bless,

SephrinaRose


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